Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for the last few months, you are very much aware of the financial turmoil affecting every corner of the globe. It seems like every day there is breaking news of another economic disaster somewhere or talk of some well-known organization folding up its tent – usually the ones that had previously been viewed as being impervious to financial difficulties. Either that, or major league frauds are being revealed on a constant basis. The list keeps growing. None of it is pretty. It’s going from bad to worse to…
Not being an expert in the financial world, I can only comment on what I’ve observed so far and state my own personal opinions (not necessarily shared by anyone else or my company). And so far, it seems like this market “correction” was due to occur for some time. It was just a matter of “when” and “how bad” it would be. Really, did anyone think that such widespread greed could go unchecked for so long? Too many people thought they were above everyone else and that the rules did not apply to them. And now they got caught – BIG time! Unfortunately, this situation has exploded out of control and it affects nearly everyone in the civilized world.
How to fix it? Not really my problem to figure out the details. But I have ideas, don’t we all? Hopefully the people who were most responsible for this mess realize the error of their ways. If not, we’ll be repeating these events in the years to come. Until we see how it all plays out in the future, we all need to figure out what to do in the here and now. I don’t think there is any industry that isn’t affected by this crisis. We’ve seen major cutbacks ourselves, in the advertising, design and printing industry. Nobody is immune to the effects – not even a company like Intrigue.
Every day, I’m hearing about more and more designers and artists struggling to either keep their jobs or find new work. All studios are cutting back – whether it’s work time, overtime, benefits… whatever. It’s either that or turn off the lights, close up shop and call it a day. Personally, that last option does not sound very appealing. Why should professional companies be forced out of business? They were in business in the first place to fulfill a need. Sure, people aren’t spending right now, but they all have NEEDS. That doesn’t disappear. People still need to eat, drink, shop, etc.
Because of that, I’m both puzzled and perplexed that advertisers cut their ad spending in times like these. It happened back in 2001, after September 11th. It’s happening now. But it makes no sense to me! By not advertising at previous levels (if at all), companies are committing corporate suicide. People can’t buy your product if you don’t advertise it and tell people it exists. I really don’t get it. I’ve been told that ad dollars are the first thing that gets cut from budgets in times of financial crisis. Hello? How can a company stay in business if they don’t let people know that they are even in business. It seems like backwards logic. And even worse, it perpetuates the downward spiral of “cutting back” and worsening the recession. What then is the plan? If you cut ad spending, then what? Where’s the cash flowing from? Is there a money river flowing through the building? I don’t think so.
On my humble soapbox, I propose a new idea. How about a return to simple moral values? Yeah, quaint it is. But necessary! After that, tell everyone to spend MORE money on advertising! Radical, I know. But this is the only way (in my opinion) to reverse this process of financial destruction. And let’s not even talk about the problems with the stock market – it upsets my stomach! Maybe next time I’ll get into that whole debacle.
On the bright side, gasoline is about half the price of what it was a year ago. Something is going right for a change…